Help wanted: Rutland Blooms to plant 10,000 daffodils

RUTLAND, Vt. – With thoughts of bright springtime flowers, Rutland Blooms is looking for volunteers to help plant nearly10,000 daffodil bulbs this fall.

“We’ll be creating two ‘rivers of flowers,’ one along Woodstock Avenue at Rutland High School, the other on West Street,” said Steve Costello of Green Mountain Power, which started Rutland Blooms this spring. “Next spring, these two gateways to the city will provide a bright, flowering welcome to everyone who passes.”

Volunteers with a willingness to do a little bit of work – green thumbs not essential – are being sought to help with the planting, which will include GMP volunteers in collaboration with the Downtown Rutland Partnership, the City of Rutland, Rutland Schools, College of St. Joseph, Castleton College, Rutland Cemetery Commission, and Rotella Building Supply. Some bulbs are also being donated to the Rutland Garden Club and the cemetery commission.

“With thousands of bulbs to plant, we are looking for anyone interested in gardening, or just helping beautify Rutland,” Costello said. “No particular skill is necessary – just a desire to be part of something special.”

The bulbs are Dutch Master Daffodils, traditional yellow flowers with large trumpet-shaped centers surrounded by pointed petals, on sturdy green stems. Blooms arrive in mid-spring, and have a reputation for sturdiness and the ability to spread continually. Dutch Master is considered by many gardeners to be the best daffodil available. Their breeding roots go back 100 years.

Wildflowers will be planted around the bulbs so the wildflowers will grow up around the daffodils after the flowers die off late next spring.

“Daffodils are really easy to plant and they thrive in just about any soil so long as it drains well,” said Karen Hill, who is helping coordinate the project. “They are beautiful flowers and will come back year after year, expanding as much as they are allowed, so the 10,000 bulbs we plant this year will turn into tens of thousands of flowers over the coming years.”

Anyone interested in helping plant the bulbs, which will be done from noon to 4 p.m. on Oct. 18, should contact Chuck Piotrowski at 770-4088 or [email protected]

More than 50 organizations have been involved in Rutland Blooms, which is a grassroots beautification effort. Each organization has determined its role. Some have promoted the effort to members and clients, planted gardens, or given away flowers, bulbs or seeds.

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